{"id":5307,"date":"2017-09-13T15:53:20","date_gmt":"2017-09-13T22:53:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/?p=5307"},"modified":"2017-09-13T19:23:54","modified_gmt":"2017-09-14T02:23:54","slug":"september-13-2017-brave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/dev\/life-stories\/september-13-2017-brave\/","title":{"rendered":"September 13, 2017 – Brave"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The most bold and brave painting I’ve done – yet!<\/p><\/div>\n

The weekend before last I showed my art at the Sausalito Art Festival.\u00a0 This was the 10th consecutive year and, mostly because of the weather, it was unlike any other.\u00a0 An intense heat wave moved in two days before the festival; we had 100+ degree (F) weather Thursday, Friday and Saturday.\u00a0 Sausalito is adjacent to the San Francisco Bay where the temperatures are tempered by the cool water of the bay and the Pacific Ocean nearby.\u00a0 On Friday evenings when the festival opens to those who come to the fancy gala is most often very chilly with the fog coming in.\u00a0 I\u2019ve had to bundle up in a coat over my skimpier fancy clothes.\u00a0 Not this year.<\/p>\n

I left the gala at 9:45 completely comfortable in just my spaghetti strap cocktail dress. On Saturday everyone:\u00a0 artists, volunteers and the courageous festival goers who did<\/em> come out mostly just coped with the 106 degree heat.\u00a0 It cooled off considerably on Sunday, but it was still hot in the sun.\u00a0 By Monday the temperature was more normal, but a freaky wind came through in the early morning.\u00a0 We arrived in the morning to see parts of booths and artwork toppled over.\u00a0 I\u2019ve heard stories of wind like this at festivals in other places in the state and country, but never here<\/em>.\u00a0 Especially on the heels of Saturday\u2019s scorching heat, the wind brought an uneasy vibe to the last day of the weekend.<\/p>\n

We did what people do when faced with a common challenge, we banded together.\u00a0 On the hot days some artists set up fans in their booths, we had spray bottles to mist ourselves and each other.\u00a0 Everyone<\/em> was sweaty \u2013 and no one seemed to apologize for it.\u00a0 None of us could escape being in a human body responding to the heat.\u00a0 Then on Monday people helped their neighbors secure their booths and put things back together from the windstorm.\u00a0 Every year a temporary community forms \u2013 the artists, their spouses and other helpers become neighbors for the three days, and because of all we dealt this year we were even more closely knit.\u00a0 Someone said we should get t-shirts that said \u201cI survived SAF 2017.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is a power in art.\u00a0 This power, even in the face of the freaky weather, drew people out to come to see and appreciate our creations.\u00a0 An original painting and many prints found their ways into people\u2019s homes and lives \u2013 the weekend was good in that sense.\u00a0 And, as I always do whenever I\u2019m showing my art in the world, I had many conversations with those wanting to learn to paint watercolor.\u00a0 There was one particular conversation that won\u2019t leave me.\u00a0 A woman told me that she\u2019d taken one class and felt like she didn\u2019t have much success.\u00a0 I could feel her self-doubt as she joked a bit about it.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard – we have this desire to learn how to express ourselves in this way \u2013 to bring forth the art that is in us.\u00a0 And before we have any evidence that we can, we have no answer to the voices telling us that there\u2019s no way we could ever do this<\/em>.\u00a0 Sort of offhandedly, she asked me \u201cso, what comes before beginner?\u201d\u00a0 I have no idea where my response came from, but it did come \u2013 I said one word:\u00a0 \u201cbrave.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is it, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 We just have to find the courage to act in the face of our fears.\u00a0 There\u2019s no way around it.\u00a0 There\u2019s no way to skip the being-vulnerable part.\u00a0 And this is not just the case for the beginner-beginners.\u00a0 If we are to stay alive as creators, to keep growing, we have to leave our comfy-ness and risk.<\/p>\n

At the festival I had a conversation with another artist I\u2019ve seen over the years \u2013 he paints in watercolor in a style that is very different from mine, landscapes in subdued colors on board, framed without glass.\u00a0 Lovely work. He told me he wants to do something completely<\/em> different with his art.\u00a0 But he\u2019s stuck in the cycle of applying for art shows so far in advance that he can\u2019t seem to find a way to make new work and still have enough art to do shows in the short term.\u00a0 When you make your entire living off of your art, as he does, there is the reality that your art is how you survive in the world, adding enormously to the risk.<\/p>\n

The chat I had with him has me seeing how I\u2019ve been holding myself safe in what I\u2019ve been painting. Over the past couple of years I\u2019ve talked about<\/em> painting things that are outside what I\u2019m known for \u2013 the world of colorful flowers and fruit and other \u201cedibles.\u201d\u00a0 There\u2019s a self-portrait, the big pond from Giverny (another 60\u201dx40\u201d painting), and a cathedral rose window painting – something to follow \u201cEternal.\u201d\u00a0 But, I find myself painting what\u2019s expected of me instead of risking.\u00a0 As a teacher, I\u2019ve been avoiding risking too.\u00a0 It\u2019s been years since I\u2019ve known that the frontier is some kind of online offering \u2013 there\u2019s a whole world of people who cannot drive to Larkspur!<\/p>\n

Our world is stirred up right now on many levels and the turmoil seems to be accelerating.\u00a0 Beyond our country\u2019s political and social upheavals and the catastrophic weather that is burning us and crashing onto our shores, closer to home there seems that a lot of people around me who are going through life-shaking emotional stuff too.\u00a0 It can feel like the swirl is everywhere and like everything is falling apart. In the face of all of this, the idea of learning to paint, risking putting ourselves out on paper or canvas pales in comparison.\u00a0 It\u2019s not life-threatening after all.<\/p>\n

And yet, they are real fears \u2013 ones that are useful to face.\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen my own life as well as others transform by finding the courage to express ourselves.\u00a0 For me it was not just painting but writing and public speaking that has let the parts of me that were hiding inside to be revealed.\u00a0 Along the way a certain solidness develops at our center that didn\u2019t exist before, making us more resilient and better able to handle bigger challenges, bigger fears.<\/p>\n

I had a discussion this morning with Maralyn and Lyn, two of my coaching sisters, about the words \u201cbrave\u201d and \u201ccourageous.\u201d\u00a0 Though the definitions are similar, the roots of the two words reveal quite a difference.\u00a0 Courage has as its root the word \u201cheart\u201d \u2013 to act from one\u2019s heart.\u00a0 Brave on the other hand, has the same root as \u201cbravo\u201d which in Italian and Spanish means \u201cbold.\u201d\u00a0 Its meaning gets even grittier with its link to \u201csavage\u201d and \u201cuntamed.\u201d\u00a0 There is an impetuousness implied in \u201cbrave\u201d that can be very close to being foolhardy.\u00a0 Though they are both useful words, in our discussion there seemed to emerge a preference for \u201ccourageous.\u201d\u00a0 But I\u2019m still making a case for \u201cbrave.\u201d\u00a0 At some deep level, I resonate with brave\u2019s \u201cbold\u201d-ness.<\/p>\n

Whichever word works for you, I invite you to find yours.\u00a0 It feels to me like this is what our times are calling for from us.\u00a0 See if there is a fear you\u2019re ready to face \u2013 a fear that may be between you and your doing something you\u2019ve wanted or needed to do.\u00a0 It may be painting, it may be speaking a truth, it may be something else completely.\u00a0 Once you do, those who are really in your corner will say to you:\u00a0 \u201cbravo!\u201d \u2013 or if you prefer \u201cbrava!\u201d\u00a0 Now, I\u2019ve got some risking to do myself.\u00a0 Stay tuned\u2026<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s to our bravery \u2013<\/p>\n

Cara<\/p>\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The weekend before last I showed my art at the Sausalito Art Festival.\u00a0 This was the 10th consecutive year and, mostly because of the weather, it was unlike any other.\u00a0 An intense heat wave moved in two days before the festival; we had 100+ degree (F) weather Thursday, Friday and Saturday.\u00a0 Sausalito is adjacent to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-stories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSeptember 13, 2017 - Brave - Life in Full Color<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/dev\/life-stories\/september-13-2017-brave\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"September 13, 2017 - Brave - Life in Full Color\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The weekend before last I showed my art at the Sausalito Art Festival.\u00a0 This was the 10th consecutive year and, mostly because of the weather, it was unlike any other.\u00a0 An intense heat wave moved in two days before the festival; 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